Akshay Kumar: Government should not levy so much service tax

The actor whose film Special 26 is slated to release on February 8 supports the Film and Television Producers Guild of India protest against the hike in service taxes

The Film and Television Producers Guild of India has decided to join the ongoing protest by the Tamil movie industry, asking the government to roll back the 12.36 percent service tax. As a mark of protest against the hike, the guild has decided to stall all Hindi film shoots and releases by the end of January, if the service tax and VAT are not waived off.

Akshay Kumar’s Special 26, which is slated to release on February 8, will be directly affected by this strike, but despite this the actor has decided to speak up in support of the guild’s decision. “The government should not levy so much service tax as it crushes the private producers,” he said.

Akshay confessed that even though he won’t be involved in the strike, he supported the cause in his own way. “Many good films can’t be made because of such hikes and private producers can’t take the strain. Only big production houses will be able to make movies if this goes on,” said Akshay.

Other films that will be affect due to the strike in February include Bejoy Nambiar’s David, Prabu Deva starrer Any Body Can Dance (ABCD) and Vivek Oberoi’s Jayantabhai Ki Luv Story amongst others.